Critter of the Year: Miracle calf wins Miscellaneous category

Saturday

Jul 1, 2017 at 7:54 AM

For the first time this year, we added two new categories to the Jim Ramberg Dog of the Year contest: Cat of the Year and a Miscellaneous category for Critter of the Year.

In the Miscellaneous category, the top award goes to Miracle, a heifer calf who was abandoned twice for a total of eight days during the first couple weeks of her life because her mother was suffering from serious health conditions. Her growth was stunted because she had to be raised off a bottle, so now she is kept as a pet and a herd mascot.

She also serves as "frat house mom" of the farm, according to owner June Hilbert, of Meriden.

"But we discovered last fall that she does have value to our operation beyond dollars and cents," June said. "We had a cow that died and left an orphan heifer that Bill took to the barn to raise as a bottle/bucket calf. To ease her loneliness and mournful bawling for her mother, he put Miracle with her as a companion. Once Miracle convinced the orphan she was a companion, not her mother and therefore couldn’t provide milk, they got along great."

The second-place award has to go Joe, a silvertip badger that was adopted as a baby by Floyd Greenwood, of Overbrook, and his family. Despite their reputation as a cantankerous species, Floyd said Joe was just as friendly as a pet dog and would never attempt to bite people.

I’ve never seen a pet badger before, but the old black and white photo is certainly a cool little bit of history.

Miscellaneous results

1. Miracle, heifer calf, owned by Bill and June Hilbert, of Meriden — Such a cool story, this little survivor is worthy of the top spot in the Miscellaneous category.

2. Joe, silvertip badger, owned by Floyd Greenwood, of Overbrook — A baby badger adopted by a human family in 1945, Joe developed into a 20-pound, short-legged brick. He was as friendly as a pet dog and never bit. Poor Joe met his downfall after catching a virus from two-dozen mangy cats owned by his neighbor, but not before winning the second-place red ribbon at the county fair pet show — though he nearly ate one of the guinea pigs that he competed against.

3. Lil’ Jerry Seinfeld, rooster, owned by Lizzie Doud, of Topeka — This brave little guy has held his own a time or two against foxes and protected his girls in the hen house. Ramberg would be proud.

4. Big Gib, French Lop, owned by Sarah Pittman, of Topeka — The first and only bunny rabbit I’ve ever seen that wears hipster glasses. What a cool animal.

5. Sam the Tortoise, owned by Amy Swift Thompson, of Tecumseh — He always finds a way to get loose and on the run, which is quite a feat for a tortoise. Somehow, finding a 100-pound tortoise isn’t as easy as you’d think.

6. Anteater, spotted by Zephyr Williams, of Topeka — This Topeka woman swears up and down she saw an anteater walking around outside her house, and as weird as Topeka is, I believe her. Just look at the next animal on our list.

7. Kansas Chupacabra, owned by no man — It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything about our local celebrity, but at this point he’s really becoming more of an urban legend. I like to think he’s keeping busy fighting crime or wrestling in an underground lucha libre league. He’s the hero this city deserves.

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